China must stop supporting the invasion of Russia In Ukraine if it wants to maintain good relations with the West, he warned this Thursday General Secretary of I will takeJens Stoltenberg.
During a visit to Berlin, the head of the Western military alliance said Beijing’s aid was vital to Moscow’s war effort as it was boosting Russia’s war economy by sharing high-end technology such as semiconductors.
“Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, which were used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft. “China is also working to provide Russia with better satellite and imaging capabilities,” Stoltenberg said.
“China says it wants to maintain good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing is fueling the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. “They can’t have both,” he warned.
Stoltenberg asked Western allies That they should not become as dependent on China as they have become on Russia,
“We made the mistake of relying on Russian oil and gas in the past,” he said. “We should not repeat that mistake with China. Depends on your money, your raw materials, your techniques… “Dependencies make us insecure.”
China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on both, but especially Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Trade between China and Russia is set to reach a record $240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3% from a year earlier. Chinese customs data shows. Chinese shipments to Russia increased by 46.9% in 2023, while imports from Russia increased by 13%.
last month, reuters he reported it Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit China in May To hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which could be his first foreign trip of his new presidential term.
On the other hand, Stoltenberg also this Thursday asked the countries of the Atlantic alliance to increase military spending due to tensions with Russia and criticized the fact that Ukraine has not received the promised aid in recent months.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO has responded with the largest defense increase in a generation, he said, but warned that “we must go further” and that Each partner must “do what is necessary” to be able to fully comply with its defensive plans and achieve the minimum target of 2% of GDP.
Stoltenberg acknowledged that increasing defense spending is not easy, because “the more you spend on defense, the less you spend on other things: health, education, infrastructure.” However, he stressed that, if military spending had declined with the end of the Cold War, it is now essential to have the capacity to increase it if tensions rise.
In addition, he expressed hope that at the alliance’s next summit in Washington in June, NATO will decide to play a greater role in the coordination of military assistance and the training of Ukrainian troops, in order to give military assistance a foundation for the Ukrainian military. Strong and long-lasting.”
At the global level, it is also important for NATO to strengthen its cooperation with countries that share similar values Russia has the support of China, North Korea and Iran. That, he said, feeds Moscow’s “war economy.”
The Secretary General of NATO arrived in Germany this Thursday, where in addition to meeting the German Foreign Minister, he visited the Laage Air Base in the north-east of the country, where the 73rd Tactical Air Wing of the German Air Force is deployed. Affairs, Annalena Baerbock.
This Friday he is scheduled to meet with representatives of the foreign affairs and defense committees of the Bundestag (the lower house of the German parliament), as well as Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
(With information from EFE and Reuters)